


Do You Believe in Soulmates?

by Rumpelstiltskin_wait



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Rumbelle Christmas in July, a bit 'o angst, minor tw for domestic violence, rcij
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-25
Packaged: 2018-04-11 05:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4422461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumpelstiltskin_wait/pseuds/Rumpelstiltskin_wait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumbelle Christmas in July gift for the wonerful kayteaem-fic on tumblr! </p>
<p>Prompt was: AU soulmates in summer </p>
<p>Aidan Gold is a divorcee, in a constant battle with his ex-wife over seeing his son. But when he has a run in with the new owner of Storybrooke's only ice cream shop, things begin to change for the better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peaches and Cream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ItsClydeBitches](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsClydeBitches/gifts).



> Well, I didn't think I'd finish in time, but here it is!

 

Summers in Storybrooke are unpleasant, to say the least. The air is hot and heavy and in your lungs. The stench of sunbaked seaweed with undertones of rotting sea creatures lingers, waiting to hit its next unsuspecting victim like a vomit-inducing steamroller.  Rowdy tourists line the streets and the beaches, oblivious to their disturbance of the usually peaceful coastal town. All of these things are what would have -under different circumstances- kept Aidan Gold far away from StoryBrooke during the warm months. Preferably in a cabin in the woods, with a lake and two fishing poles and his son by his side. But, as was no surprise, his ex-wife was being, for lack of a better word…a bitch.

Aidan and Milah’s parting had been less than amicable. Seven years ago she had traded him in for a younger, stupider model, and somehow weaseled her way into getting full custody of their six year old son, Baethan. It had been the most important fight of Aidan’s life, and he had fought hard, and he had lost; he had lost his son. What was worse was Milah wasn’t fit to be a mother, Aidan knew that. After all, he had been the one to sing and rock Bae to sleep nine nights out of ten, because Milah was out god knows where doing god knows what.

He had done everything Milah should have done since the first week they brought Bae home. He changed every diaper, he soothed every colicky midnight fit, he gave every bath, and he took him to every doctor’s appointment. Milah even considered breastfeeding to be a chore, so it didn’t take long for her to give it up completely in favor of using a pump whenever she had the courtesy to remember that their child needed nourishment. And so Aidan was left to be a subpar replacement for a mother’s breast; a bare chest and a warm bottle. Of course, Milah had snickered at that, saying he looked “ridiculous” with their son cuddled to his thin naked chest.

When Baethan turned five, Aidan was the one to see him off to his first day of school. He was the one that had to hold back tears as his son waved goodbye. He was the one that made his lunches every morning, and helped him with his homework every afternoon. And every day he thought of what it would be like to pack up the car and just leave, just take Bae and leave, and find somewhere to be happy. And every day he convinced himself that staying was better. That Bae needed both his parents. Despite that, Aidan had felt nothing but relief the day Milah told him she was leaving him. Relief had turned to confusion, then sorrow, then anger, when she told him she would fight for custody of Bae. And so Aidan found himself in the midst of a custody battle, with Bae in the crossfire, right where Aidan had always been trying to keep him from ending up.

He fought, but in the end the courts didn’t see it in his favor. They saw Mr. Gold, the pawn shop owner, the man that owned half the town. They didn’t see Aidan, the father, the man that would have sold his very soul to keep his son safe. But life isn’t a fairytale; he couldn’t sell his soul to Rumplestiltskin to keep his son. The judge had taken one look at him, and one look at Milah, and a decision was made. Aidan had experienced many times how bitter and unfair life could be, but losing his son only cemented that belief.

Suddenly father and son went from seeing each other daily, spending hours together every morning and night, to seeing each other for a few hours once a week if they were lucky. It wasn’t only unfair to Aidan, it was unfair to Bae. Aidan wasn’t just losing his son, Baethan was losing his father. He had pleaded the fact with Milah more times than he liked to remember, but she never cared. All she cared about was collecting the child support that she would never use for their son, and making sure Aidan suffered. But after the first six months, all she cared about was making sure Baethan was out of the way of her childish lifestyle.

Bae’s weekends were spent with his papa, and the rest of the week was spent with mama. Of course, things always came up. Milah always had something better to do than spend time with her son, so some days Aidan picked Bae up from school and it would be almost like it used to be, until whatever ungodly hour Milah decided to come and pick him up, breaking the spell of normalcy.

Seven years later and here they were, once again losing any shred of normalcy Aidan could try to provide his son. It was their tradition, going to the cabin. Every summer since Bae was 8 –when Milah decided that her summer would be better without a child getting in the way- the two of them had spent a month and a half out of the summer camping; or, their version of camping.  Aidan owned an ancient cabin on the outskirts of Storybrooke, and in the middle of June every year, Aidan and Bae would make pack the car with a couple months-worth of clothes and food and whatever else would keep them from needing to venture back into town, and headed for the woods.

This year, however, Milah had suddenly decided that she wanted to spend the summer with Bae, and ripped apart the only thing Aidan had left to look forward to. “I want Baethan to spend the summer with his  new  father” she had said. After seven years –or eight, if you were to count the year that Milah was still married- the prick that she had originally left Aidan for, Killan Jones, had proposed; which probably had to do with the fact that Milah was five months pregnant. And she was hell bent on making sure Bae’s summer was spent anywhere but with his  real  father. Maybe it was the hormones, he thought. Whatever it was, after years of relative peace, Milah had decided to ruin Aidan’s summer for absolutely no reason other than the satisfaction of making him miserable.

Bae tried to fight it, but he was too gentle of a boy. He didn’t like confrontation, and he never could have found it in himself to tell his mother the truth of the matter; he would have chosen his father in a heartbeat over her. He had, however, requested that he at least still get Friday and weekends with his father, which his mother had begrudgingly agreed to.

And it was Friday, which is why Aidan and Bae were walking down Main Street in the sweltering heat, in search of anything to do.

“You could try wearing something  other  than a  black  suit. Y’know, since it’s like 85 degrees.” Bae teased his father, who turned his head and squinted at his son as they walked.

“Oh, would you rather I wear a  white suit?” Aidan started, nudging his son with his elbow, “Wouldn’t that be stylish!” He continued with a dramatic flourish of his hand.

Bae visibly cringed at the thought. “Or  normal  summer attire? Like shorts? Or a tee shirt?”

Aidan shot his son a non-threatening glare that said  you know that’s not happening , and the boy groaned. Aidan Gold owned two pairs of shorts, and he would never be seen in wearing them by anyone but his son.

“Son, at this point I’m afraid the sight of me wearing anything other than a suit would be deeply unsettling to the innocents of StoryBrooke.” He was only half teasing. He could just imagine the gawking. “I’m fine. Promise.” Aidan assured, tugging at his collar when he thought Bae wasn’t looking, earning a teasing glare from the boy.

“Where are we going anyway?” Aidan asked warily as his son led him further into town past air-conditioned shop after air-conditioned shop.

Bae had convinced his father to walk around town with him –though the convincing took little more than a “please”- but he hadn’t mentioned an actual destination; if he even had one in mind.

“Well now that you mention it, there  is  that new ice cream shop…” Bae replied, trailing off with a grin.

Of course,  Aidan thought, shaking his head to fight the smirk growing on his face,  he knew exactly where he was going.

The only ice cream shop in StoryBrooke  had  been owned by a woman named Ingrid Fischer, but a recent incident involving the stalking of the town’s sheriff, Emma Swan, had landed the woman behind bars, and her shop up for sale. 

Given that the small lot was one of the few buildings in Storybrooke that Aidan didn’t own, he had very little knowledge of the woman who had bought and renovated it other than the fact that her name was Belle French and her father was the town’s florist, Moe French -always late with the rent, that man. Curiosity alone would have been enough to draw Aidan in, but the way his son was practically buzzing with excitement was convincing enough. 

As they neared the shop, Aidan’s eye caught on the brightly colored sign hanging above the sidewalk. In white cursive were the words  Paperbacks & Cream  over a sky blue background.

“What kind of a name is that?” Aidan scoffed as Bae ran ahead 

The scent of vanilla hit him like a wall the moment he stepped foot in the cheery little establishment. The sky blue of the sign outside continued on every wall of the interior, with puffy white clouds here and there between the outrageous number of what appeared to be children’s drawing covering the walls. The new owner’s forte obviously wasn’t interior design. 

“It looks like they set a pre-schooler loose in here” Aidan mumbled as he came to his son’s side at the glass covered array of ice cream. 

“I can assure you I finished pre-school long ago” Said a woman’s voice laced with a faded Australian accent.

Aidan very nearly jumped ten feet back when the woman popped up from somewhere behind the counter. It was a wonder he didn’t fall flat on his arse, really.  

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you!” The small brunette said with a chuckle, throwing her hands up in front of her.

It was on the tip of his tongue to defend his pride and snap back that she hadn’t startled him, but between the sympathetic look on the woman’s face and Bae’s failed attempts to cover his laughter by coughing into his fist, it was obvious that trying to deny that she had indeed startled him would be futile. Aidan shot his son a glare and straightened his back, making a point of clearing his throat louder than was completely necessary, just to get the point across that they were very much past the events of the last 60 seconds. 

The woman -who Aidan assumed was the owner, Belle French-  seemed to take the -very obvious- hint, and she smiled brightly. “Well what would you two gentlemen like today?” she asked, slapping her hands down on the counter with a small thump. 

Bae was practically plastered to the glass and he piped up immediately, “What are they all!? There’s so many!” 

Aidan cleared his throat quietly to get his son’s attention and raised an eyebrow when the boy turned to look at him. 

Bae sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes, “Could you please tell me the flavors?” he asked flatly, turning to check for his father’s approval. Aidan nodded once and Bae’s demeanor went back to it’s previous excitement as he again plastered himself over the display case filled with tubs of ice cream in every flavor imaginable. 

The woman behind the counter smiled brighter, “Absolutely.”

Aidan stood by quietly as his son and the cheerful ice cream shop owner conversed over the seemingly endless choices. While the woman was trying to convince Bae that  “Lavender ice cream is a lot better than it sounds!” , Aidan caught himself staring. 

She was a petite woman, at least a head shorter than him if not more. Long chestnut curls hung down her back in a low ponytail, a few tendrils having fallen loose framing her face. She smiled brightly as she handed Bae tiny spoonfuls of several different ice creams, her laughter genuine each time he would grimace at a flavor. 

Aidan was slowly realizing that this woman was quite pretty; well...gorgeous, really. And her eyes, god, her eyes were the brightest crystal blue he’d seen in all his years and they were-...they were staring directly at him. 

Apparently he’d been staring a bit more intensely than he had meant to, because one moment she was helping Bae pick a flavor, and the next she was facing him and he was staring into her eyes and she was staring back. Words were coming out of her mouth, but he couldn’t hear a thing. A low, insistent “ Dad!”  from Bae snapped him back into reality. 

What was wrong with him?! He was probably scaring the poor woman half to death! He straightened his back and cleared his throat quietly, “Sorry. Got lost in thought there for a moment.” he said, trying to recover from that terribly awkward moment as best he could. 

More like “got a bit lost in your eyes”,  Aidan thought, inwardly cringing at the uncharacteristically sappy thought. 

“It happens to the best of us.” The woman replied with a sweet smile. “I was just checking if you’ve decided what you want.” 

She was still smiling that lovely smile of hers, damn her, and Aidan thanked god for his cane, because his knees were feeling suddenly weaker. He stumbled over a reply, something along the lines of “ I don’t want anything”  but he couldn’t be sure if that’s actually how it had come out. A quick glance at Bae showed the boy was very clearly mortified at the entire turn of events following their arrival, which wouldn’t have been too far from what Aidan was feeling at that moment as well.  Why was he so damn flustered?!

“Oh come on, it must be at least 85 out there and you’re wearing  black.  You need ice cream.” The woman was practically insisting at that point. 

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you.” Aidan replied, desperately hoping that the woman would drop it. 

That didn’t faze her in the slightest. “I’ll give it to you then. Free of charge. You can even throw it out when you get around the block if you feel so inclined. But I can’t let you walk out of here without a cone in your hand.” This woman was dead serious, Aidan realized, and the determination evident in her piercing eyes told him that there was no changing her mind. 

Aidan sighed. “two scoops of rocky road” 

The woman’s smile got  brighter,  if that was even possible. “Two scoops huh? I thought you didn’t want any.” She said, a teasing tone to her voice as she set to work stuffing a waffle cone with rocky road. Her smile curled into a wry smirk and her eyes twinkled with mirth as she handed him the cone -which was definitely more than two scoops. 

Aidan took the ice cream reluctantly, but hurried to hook his cane over his arm and reach for his wallet with his free hand. “How much do I owe you?” He asked, thumbing past the big bills and pulling out a ten. 

“two-fifty is your total today” The woman replied with the sweetest voice Aidan had ever heard, all but skipping over to the register and popping open the drawer. 

Aidan briefly wondered if she was  always this cheerful.  Would that even be humanly possible?  he pondered. 

“I think not. It must be more.” Aidan stated, his brow furrowed in confusion. 

The woman chuckled, and it was  infuriating.  Why was this complete and utter stranger having such an effect on him?! Why did he lose himself in her eyes the moment he saw her, and why did his knees stop functioning when she laughed, and why did her smile make his stomach feel so strange? 

“Yours was free, remember? Two-fifty for his cone.” she replied, pointing briefly at Bae, who Aidan had just realized was holding his own white swirled with orange cone, completely focused on licking frantically at the dripping edges. 

Aidan shook his head and stepped toward the counter, trying desperately to ignore the fact that the smell of vanilla and lavender was practically  radiating  off the woman. “Absolutely not.” He said, quickly sliding a ten dollar bill across the counter. 

The woman laughed again, only this time with a sort of shocked gasp. “That’s double what it would have been if I  was  charging you for two.” she started, shaking her head. “No way I’m taking this.” she pushed the bill back across the counter, the tip of her finger brushing his just slightly as she did, sending a tingle all the way up Aidan’s arm and making him shiver -which he narrowly succeeded in hiding. 

“It’s a tip then.” 

She nudged it just a bit further across the counter.

“I’m not going to pick it up.”  

The woman narrowed her eyes at him and pulled the bill back, stuffing it in the register. “Thank you.” she said with a quick nod, barely keeping a smirk from her lips, one corner of her mouth betraying her.

Aidan nodded curtly and hoped it wasn’t obvious that he was trying not to smile just as much as her. He backed away from the counter, then made for the door and motioned for Bae to follow. 

Bae looked up from his now significantly smaller ice cream long enough to wave to the woman and give her a toothy grin before stepping out the door being held open by his father. 

Aidan had no intention of looking back at the woman, but he did anyway. She was bent over the counter on one elbow with her chin resting in her palm, her eyes all twinkling cerulean over a wide grin, a glimpse of pearly teeth peeking out as she pulled her bottom lip between them.

He looked away quick enough to give himself whiplash, and hurried out the door. As he stepped back out into the scorching heat and the door swung shut behind them, Aidan tried to ignore the fact that he could feel his pulse everywhere at once and his heart was beating faster than was probably healthy. 

“What did you get?” He asked his son in a feeble attempt at distracting himself, his voice just a bit higher than he would have liked. What was he, 13? Swooning over pretty girls, his voice squeaking like a prepubescent teenager? He had to make sure this  never happened again. 

“Peaches and Cream”


	2. Rocky Road

While Belle French enjoyed her Saturdays volunteering at Storybrooke’s one and only library, it was the slow days that she enjoyed the most. Just the books and her thoughts; and Mrs. Noble, the ancient librarian, but she never said or did much other than shushing anyone that came in and falling asleep at her desk. Today was one of those days. 

It had been an all around uneventful day, apart from the teenagers she’d caught using the World History section as makeout rendezvous -which tended to happen now and again- nothing too exciting had happened. That meant she was left to her thoughts. 

As she returned books to their places, she found that her mind kept wandering back to the man that had come into her shop the day before. She knew who he was of course, everyone knew who he was. Mr. Gold, the pawn shop owner, the man that owned half the town, her father’s flower shop included. You couldn’t live in Storybrooke without hearing his name in hushed, angry tones at least every other day. But somehow she’d made it this far without dealing directly with the man. Well, up until yesterday. 

Suddenly the image she had constructed over the years fell apart.  Everyone had always made him sound terrifying, like some kind of monster that would come for your children in the dead of night. But the man that had startled at the sight of her wasn’t quite as scary as people made him out to be. Timid and awkward? Yes. Intimidating? No. Belle had never been one for ‘crushes’, and yet, she couldn’t help but find him strangely endearing.

During high school she had never had a particular interest in boys -or girls, for that matter. Despite a rumor that circulated for a week or two during her Junior year- she was always more interested in her studies than a relationship. Meanwhile, all her friends were pining over the football team.  Then she had gone off to college -in New York, to her father’s dismay- and managed to get her Bachelor's in business without having to go through more than a casual date here and there. She was alone, sure, but she was content, happy, even.  

And then a few years out of college, she’d met Gregg; and he was new, and different, and spontaneous, and a drastic change from her norm, and it was good at first. Dates every other night and out of the blue late night phone calls. To Belle, it almost felt like a first love. But that didn’t last. 

They’d been together for a year when she started to notice the changes in him. He always had a bit of a temper, but it was turning into more. It was screaming in her face and slamming doors, it was storming out and storming back in only to continue his ranting, and every time it ended in apologies that felt too good to be true. She had always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. His father was an alcoholic, he was under stress from work, he doesn’t get enough sleep; all things she now recognized as excuses. 

They’d been together for two years the first time he punched a hole in their bedroom wall, because she lost her key to their apartment for the second time. The second time he punched a hole in their bedroom wall was inches away from her head, when they had an argument about the late rent. The third time he aimed his anger at their bedroom wall, he missed. 

She had left that night, thrown as many of her belongings as she could in a backpack, ignoring his tearful pleading, that he was sorry, that he didn’t mean to, that he’d never hurt her again, and she ran. Hot tears streaked down her face, stinging the split in her skin just below her right eye, but she kept going, and she didn’t stop until she was safe in her papa’s arms.  

And now, two years later, here she was; finally content, and safe, and  happy . With her little ice cream shop and her little apartment above the library, and her little crush on the town’s pawnbroker.  

A crush that seemed to be planting itself in her mind and very quickly growing roots that caused a fluttery feeling to bloom in her stomach. Her little crush was beginning to feel a bit more like infatuation. Could you even  be  infatuated with someone you’d only met once? Belle wondered after the second time she caught herself thinking about his hair. 

It looked so soft; she could almost imagine it, warm from the sun, gliding softly between her fingers as she ran her hand-

“Quit daydreaming and get back to work!” 

Mrs. Noble’s hoarse whisper dragged Belle out of her imagination, and she realized she still had her hand on the book she had been putting away prior to her fantasizing about a perfect stranger’s hair.  

It wasn’t just his hair that Belle found herself getting caught up in thought about as the day dragged on. While emptying the book return box, she was remembering the color of his eyes; beautiful deep chocolate brown, with just a touch of amber. Then while organizing the children’s reading room, she couldn’t keep the smile from her face as she thought of the very endearing way that his forehead creased in confusion when she had insisted on giving him free icecream.  

Of course, she did think of things  other than Mr. Gold throughout the day; she wasn’t obsessed or something. In fact, there was a new ice cream flavor she’d thought up, that she’d been dying to experiment with. Blackberry, wildflower honey, and just a hint of lavender. The honey and lavender would be easy enough to find, the trouble was, she wasn’t completely sure where to find good blackberries. 

Maybe she’d ask around, see if anyone knew good spots for berry picking. Maybe she’d ask  Mr. Gold,  that would certainly give her a reason to see him again, she thought as she finished her work for the day and waved goodbye to an -as per usual- unresponsive Mrs. Noble. 

\-----

Beside the embarrassment of their visit to the new ice cream shop  Paperback & Cream  Aidan and Bae’s weekend was going well; too well, actually. Milah hadn’t been a source of stress for either of them for Bae’s entire visit, which was unusual. It was much more pleasant, but still it put Aidan on edge. He was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop with her. 

The other shoe did drop, when during a perfectly lazy Saturday morning, Baethan got a call from his mother. 

“Hi mo- what?” 

Aidan’s jaw clenched as soon as he heard the voice on the other end of the call and he watched his son closely, trying to gauge how badly Milah was about to ruin their weekend this time. 

“Mom what are you talking about?” Bae’s brow creased more and more the longer his mother spoke, “Mom this is my weekend with dad. You never said anything abou- No, I know bu- Mom I don’t want to-” Baethan sighed.

Aidan was moments away from ripping the phone out of his sons hand and hanging up, when he saw Bae’s face fall, and heard him mumble “Okay…” and a moment later “Love you” before hanging up. Aidan couldn’t stand the way Milah constantly cut Bae off when he was trying to speak, but he tried very hard not to speak ill of his ex-wife in front of their son. 

Bae turned wordlessly toward the table where his breakfast lay barely warm and forgotten, dropping himself heavily into the chair across from his father. Bae looked dangerously close to tears of anger, if his clenched jaw and flaring nostrils were anything to judge by. Just as Aidan was about to ask what Milah had said and try to comfort the boy, there was a loud crack as the back of Baethan’s phone connected with the dining room table. He’d slammed the phone down so hard that plastic back had cracked in two, and there was now a slight imperfection in the flawless finish of Aidan’s rather expensive dining room table. But he couldn’t bring himself to care in the slightest about either of those things. 

It was in Baethan’s nature to be calm in even the most stressful of situations. It had always puzzled Aidan how the boy could remain so level headed when he had been through so much that would make anyone an utter wreck. But even the calmest people, the most level headed people, have their breaking points. And Milah seemed to have found Baethan’s.

“Baethan...what did your mother say?” Aidan asked warily, dreading the answer. 

“It doesn’t matter, because it’s not happening.” Baethan responded through clenched teeth, avoiding eye contact and squeezing his already battered cellphone hard enough to damage it further.  

“Bae…” He didn’t want to push, but he needed to know what was happening, or, according to Bae, not happening. 

Bae shoved himself from his seat and began pacing, running a hand through his thoroughly mussed hair, his mouth running at a mile a minute the whole while. 

“She’s coming to get me, dad! She says I’ve spent enough time with you and I need to spend time with Killian, and that we’re going out on the boat for a few days, and they’re on their way right now. Well screw that! Because  I’m not going!  I’m so sick of her acting like she can control every second of my life! I want to be here with you! ” 

Everything he’d said suddenly registered and he immediately deflated and met his father’s eyes, obviously searching for any sign of an incoming scolding for his sudden outburst. But Aidan only gave his son a sympathetic half smile, and motioned for him to sit back down. 

When Bae was sat back down and relatively calm, Aidan rose from his seat, placing a hand on his son’s shoulder when he moved to do the same. 

“No, you stay here.” Aidan said, giving Bae’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “We’ll figure this out. But first...tea.”

“See, nothing seems quite as bleak after a cup of tea,” Aidan said, after the tea had been drank and nerves slightly settled,  in an attempt at comforting his son. In all honesty, things still seemed just as bleak as they had been 10 minutes before; he could only hope Bae didn’t feel the same way. 

After a few moments of tense silence, Bae was the first to speak. “Dad, I’ve uh- well I’ve been doing some research…” he started, staring intensely into his mug of lukewarm tea. “about uh- about custody...stuff.” He nervously cleared his throat, then continued. “and now that I’m thirteen… I can-” He paused and chewed the inside of his cheek, mulling the words over in his head. “I can choose.”

Aidan knew this, of course. He’d known since the beginning of the custody battle with Milah. Once Baethan turned thirteen, he would be considered old enough to make his own decision regarding what parent he lived with. He never would have mentioned it to Bae, though. No matter how badly Aidan wished his son could stay with him, he couldn’t have asked the boy to choose between his parents. He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could speak, the doorbell rang. 

Aidan’s mouth snapped shut, setting his jaw as the doorbell was followed by several hard knocks on the front door. 

“That’ll be your mother, then.” He said, trying not to sound as bitter as he was. “Let her in. I think the three of us need to have a discussion.” 

Twenty minutes later and the three of them -and Killian- were sat in Aidan’s dining room, Milah and Aidan as far apart as possible, on either ends of the oversized oblong table. Baethan had been trying to convey his feelings to his mother for what seemed like hours, but was being continuously interrupted. Just when Aidan had had quite enough of Milah’s blatant disrespect of their son, Killian, who had thus-far been -surprisingly- respectfully quiet, spoke up. 

“Milah, love, I think you should let the boy talk.” He said quietly from his seat next to Milah, leaning toward her as he spoke. 

Milah made an exasperated sound in the back of her throat and shot Killian a piercing glare, which he took without so much as a flash of regret in his eyes, staring right back at her and raising his eyebrows. Aidan’s respect for the man grew exponentially at that. Not only did Killian stand up to Milah’s stubborn nature, he did it in defense of Baethan. He’d have to remember to shake that man’s hand. 

Killian inclined his head toward Bae, encouraging him to speak up. Bae cleared his throat. 

“Well… Mom, uh- I just want…” He was having trouble, now, with complete silence, waiting for him to fill it. Two pairs of eyes were encouraging  him to say what he was thinking, and one pair threatening to bite his head off if he did. He flicked his gaze to his father and was met with a look of utter love and support; that was all he needed. He looked down at his hands where they fidgeted in his lap, gathering his courage. 

“I want to spend more time with dad...” He began, his eyes scanning his family, gauging their emotions before continuing, “I mean...Killian’s not my dad. He’s not even my step dad yet, and I don’t understand why I have to spend more time with him than with my  real  dad. No offense Killian.” He looked to Killian and tilted his head sympathetically. 

“None taken.” Killian answered with a smile. “I do want to spend time with you, my boy, but only if it’s by your choice.” He finished with a nod.

Milah looked ready to burst after having been silent for so long. Bae noticed this, and warily addressed her. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with you, mom… It’s just that…” He took a moment, trying to come up with the right words, “Dad’s house feels like home, I guess… And I don’t like to be away from home.”

Milah’s frustration seemed to have melted away, and to Aidan’s surprise, she looked close to tears. She nodded slowly and gave Bae a forced smile, before pushing her chair away from the table and standing -needing a hand from Killian, due to her baby bump, which was becoming a bit more than a bump. 

“I… understand.” She said with some difficulty, clearing her throat and blinking away the beginnings of tears. “We’ll just- we’ll just figure it out… and for now- for now, you can stay here.” She finished, smiling at Bae, her eyes softer than he could ever remember them being. Then she did something unexpected. She took a cautious step forward, and carefully enveloped Baethan in a timid hug. 

Bae stiffened at first. It wasn’t something that happened every day, a hug from his mom. It was sad, when he thought about it too hard, but he couldn’t seem to recall the last time she’d hugged him like this. After a moment he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her back, returning the hug as well has her belly would allow. 

After a few moments -which felt like several minutes to Aidan and Killian, who were standing by awkwardly- Milah released him, and quickly wiped away a few tears that had formed during that rather emotional moment. 

She backed away and glanced over at Killian, who took the cue that it was time for them to leave, and was at her side immediately, putting a gentle hand on her back. 

The four of them made their way toward the door, then. Milah gave Bae another, more brief, hug, and Killian gave him a firm squeeze on the shoulder and a smile. Aidan took the opportunity to shake Killian’s hand, and though there was still obvious tension between the two, there was also a newfound mutual respect. As Killian led Milah out the door and onto the porch, Aidan and Bae followed. 

Killian was opening the passenger side door for Milah, when she suddenly called out to Aidan and Bae.

“You know… This sure would be good camping weather.” She smiled at Bae as she said it, though there was a hint of what Aidan assumed was sadness in her voice. Aidan met Milah’s eyes briefly, and they exchanged curt nods, which was friendlier than their usual interactions. 

Aidan and Baethan stayed standing on the porch until Killians car pulled out of the gravel driveway. 

“Dad!” Bae said suddenly once the car had pulled out of the drive, leaving a cloud of dust in it’s wake. He whipped around to face Aidan and smacked him on the arm. “Did you hear that! She practically  told  us to go camping! We have to!”

Aidan couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he looked over at his son. “It really would be a waste not to take advantage of such nice weather…” He said thoughtfully, smirking when Bae let out a whoop of excitement. “Well, what are you waiting for? You better get packing!” 

Bae laughed out of pure happiness as he bolted inside and up the stairs, muttering about making sure to charge his camera this time. Aidan made his way inside a bit slower, but with a new spring in his step. Once the door was shut, he leaned back against it and let out a breathy laugh of his own, both out of relief and happiness. The summer had finally taken an unexpected turn for the better.    



	3. Moose Tracks

“If the lake is...here- and the road it right  here,  then the trail must be  right  there- but there’s no- where’s the-” Belle French shifted her bucket from one arm to the other as she tried to turn the roughly drawn map in her hands, turning in circles herself. 

She had been grateful when a man in Granny’s had overheard her asking Ruby if she knew where to pick blackberries, and had offered to draw her a map. But now that she had followed his “foolproof” directions, she was beginning to realize that the man didn’t exactly look like much of an outdoorsman. The drive to the lake had been confusing enough,and now she couldn’t even find the blackberries she’d driven all that way to pick!  

Just as she was mentally kicking herself for taking a  drawn  map from a man in a labcoat, something caught her eye. A few feet into the underbrush in front of her, there was a faded pink plastic ribbon tied around the lowest branch of an ancient fir tree. Just past the marked fir tree, there was a barely obvious break in the underbrush, and past that, a rough trail. It was an entirely different direction than Mr. Labcoat’s map showed.  At least he tried , she thought as she pushed back a few bushes and trudged through the thick underbrush toward the trail. 

She must have followed the “trail” -which was looking more and more like a deer-trail- for 20 minutes before she spotted a break in the trees ahead. She gasped when she reached the opening and saw what lay ahead. On the left was the lake, crystal blue, gently lapping up on the pebbly shore; on the right… a wall of blackberry bushes as far as she could see, around a bend and out of sight. When she got closer she could see they were absolutely  covered with huge, perfectly ripe berries. She nearly squealed with excitement and set to work picking them right away. 

It was a bit cooler than usual, she noticed, even a bit chilly when the wind kicked up. There seemed to be a few suspicious dark cloud in the distance, but that was quickly pushed to the back of her mind as her bucket slowly filled with fruit. 

\-----

It had taken most of the evening after Milah and Killian had left to gather everything they would need for a very impromptu camping trip. There was only a week left of July, and both Aidan and Bae agreed that they wanted to get to the cabin as soon as possible, deciding to leave the following evening, a Sunday.  

“Bae!” Aidan called through the house. Baethan had been moving their things onto the porch, when he realized he had forgotten something and ran back upstairs to search for whatever it was. There was an answering pounding of footsteps down the stairs, and a moment later Bae was behind him, looking at Aidan’s laptop over his shoulder. He’d decided to check the weather, just in case, so they could pack extra things accordingly. “It looks like rain tonight. Maybe a bit of thunder and lightning too. We’d better get going soon if we want to make it out there before the storm hits- did you get everything onto the porch?”

Bae double checked the porch, and confirmed that everything was ready, it just needed to be put into the back of the car. 

With everything packed -or rather, stuffed; Bae wasn’t very good at strategically packing the back of the Cadillac- in the car, they were off. 

It wasn’t a terribly long drive out to the cabin, thirty minutes at the most, but by the time they turned into the long and winding driveway leading to their destination, there were fat drops of rain beginning to sprinkle the windshield. They had barely made it inside the cabin with the last of their things when it started  pouring . 

“Glad we’re in  here …” Bae muttered, watching the rain come down harder and harder and thanking god that his father’s version of camping included an actual roof and indoor plumbing. 

\-----

She should have checked the weather. Of course, why would she  ever  expect a  giant bloody storm in July?  She wouldn’t. Which is precisely why she had ended up trudging back up the trail -which was getting muddier by the minute- trying to find her way back to her car. After about ten minutes of walking through the woods being soaked by what was now a torrential downpour, Belle realized she didn’t recognize anything at all. It was all just trees and bushes and mud, and she didn’t recognize  anything at all.  Wherever she was, it didn’t look like the same trail she’d walked earlier in the day. 

She was trying very hard not to panic and turned in a circle, searching for anything that looked remotely familiar. Finally, after trying to survey the surroundings in the growing darkness and rain, she decided that the trail she was on must lead somewhere, and decided to follow it. She just Hoped that wherever she ended up, she’d get there before it was completely dark.  

\-----

“This is the worst storm we’ve had since I was little…” Baethan mused as he gazed out the window at the rain beating down outside, from where he’d settled in a nest of pillows in the window seat. From where he was crouched in front of the fireplace, Aidan grunted in agreement, then, using the mantle to pull himself back to his feet, stood back to admire the rather impressive fire he’d just built. Somewhere outside, a tree cracked, and a loud crash followed seconds later. Bae looked momentarily worried at the sound, and Aidan came to his side, peering out the window. 

“All the trees around here are good and strong… they’ll hold.” Aidan muttered. That seemed to relax Bae, and he settled back into his nest of pillows and cracked open the thick book in his lap. 

“What’d you find?” Aidan asked as he settled himself into the leather armchair nearest the fire, next to Bae. He hadn’t seen Bae pack any books, but there were a few books left in the cabin from past visits, so he must have found one of them. 

“Harry Potter” Bae answered shortly, flipping past the title page to the first chapter. 

Aidan smirked, Bae must have read those books once a year. “which one?” 

He chuckled when Bae mumbled something that, combined with the loud pelting of rain on the roof and windows,  sounded like “The Hobbit of Fear”. Aidan was certain Hobbits and Harry Potter were a separate thing, but Bae already looked engrossed, and he didn’t feel like bothering him to ask. 

This camping trip hadn’t turned out exactly the way he had hoped; they wouldn’t be fishing any time soon, and judging by the rain, it would be too flooded during the next few days to do much other than sit inside and read. Aidan was fine with that, though. He glanced back over at his son, who was now so distracted by his book - The Goblet of Fire , Aidan could now see- that he didn’t even flinch when thunder cracked in the distance. Maybe this wasn’t the same as their usual summer getaways, but sitting by the fire with his son as a storm raged on outside in the growing darkness, was strangely relaxing. All that was missing was a good cup of tea.  

Aidan was just contemplating getting up from the warmth of the fire to put the kettle on, when another crack of thunder sounded, this time closer, and much louder than before. Bae lifted his head and craned his neck over his book to watch the sky through the window. After a flash of lightning illuminated the windows with a burst of light, Aidan heard Bae counting  one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississippi  and so on under his breath until another clap of thunder shook the cabin. 

“It’s a mile and half away” Bae said, not turning his eyes away from the sky. 

He’d always loved storms. Even before he could truly understand what they were, he was always captivated by the rain and bright flashes of lightning; even thunder hadn’t fazed little Bae. 

In fact, Aidan remembered, it always seemed to excite him. He smiled at the memory, and took advantage of Bae’s momentary distraction to watch him. He still couldn’t believe it sometimes. Sometimes Baethan would do the most ordinary thing, and Aidan couldn’t help but smile -which tended to annoy Bae more and more the older he got. He couldn’t understand how someone like him had the privilege of having a son as wonderful as Baethan. He’d never done anything in his life to deserve Bae, and yet, here he was. 

Another clap of thunder pulled Aidan from his thoughts. 

“Tea sure would be nice right about now, huh?” Bae said with a smirk. 

Like father like son,  Aidan thought. “I was thinking the same thing.” he answered, rising from his -now perfectly warm- leather chair. 

While Aidan was waiting for the kettle to boil, the storm had gotten worse. He wouldn’t have believed it possible a few minutes before, but the rain was coming down even harder, and between the rain beating down on the roof and the wind howling through the trees, Aidan almost didn’t hear the kettle whistling on the stove. 

The kettle whistling and the rain and wind outside created an eerie, howling symphony. And suddenly, in between the familiar sounds of the storm, there was a new sound. A sound that sounded very much like knocking. 

Both Bae and Aidan heard it immediately, and their heads whipped around to the door, then to each other. Another knocking sound, more insistent this time. They looked back at the door. Bae had thrown his book to the side, and Aidan was frozen with the steaming kettle in hand, poised to fill the two mugs on the counter. Neither of them moved. 

More knocking. 

“Uhh…” Bae looked back at his father, his eyes wide. “maybe you should...maybe you should get that”

Aidan nodded, and for whatever reason, grabbed the cast iron skillet hanging above the stove, wielding it as he crept to the door. 

Bae sidled up half behind his father. “Dad” he whispered, “I don’t think an axe murder would knock on the door if they were gonna kill us” 

Aidan shushed him, and reached for the door handle, flexing his finger around it -and his grip on the skillet- before turning it slowly, and yanking the door open. 

A cold gust of wind swirled in through the open door, and rain was splattering in, soaking the entryway as the second went by. 

Aidan made a noise of confusion at the sight in front of him and lowered his makeshift weapon. 

It was a woman. A quite small, quite  soaked  woman. 

Aidan cursed under his breath. “Chirst-” he breathed, taking in the woman’s muddy, soaked figure, and the bucket she clutched in one arm. “Come in!” he cried over the wind, ushering the woman inside. 

Bae was in a bit of a state of shock. There was, after all,  a strange, assumedly lost, rain soaked woman in their cabin. 

“Bae go get as many towels as you can find” his father ordered, his voice much too calm for Bae’s liking.  Honestly,  did he not find this situation strange? Despite that, Bae hurried for the bathroom, grabbing a stack of towels out of the closet and sprinting back to the living room. 

Aidan murmured a thanks to his son and took a few of the towels, quickly wrapping them around the woman’s shaking shoulders. “Come on, over by the fire. You’ll catch your death if you don’t warm up.”  He led the woman to the chair he’d been sitting in minutes before, and Bae saw him cringe a bit as water dripped off the woman and into the creases of his very antique, very expensive leather chair. 

The woman looked up at Aidan and Bae and tucked her dripping, limp hair behind her ears. “I can’t thank you enough, I didn’t know if I’d ever find a house!” she said, her voice shaking like she’d been crying. “I was just picking blackberries and then it started raining and I couldn’t find my way back to my car- I shouldn’t have even taken that stupid map from that stupid guy-” she babbled, staring into the fire and shivering. 

The moment she’d spoken Bae’s mouth dropped open, and he didn’t shut it until the woman stopped talking. Baethan grabbed his father’s arm and dragged him into the kitchen, calling a “Be right back!” to the woman as he did. 

“Do you know who that is!?” Bae asked in a hurried whisper. Before Aidan could answer that,  yes he definitely knew who the woman was,  Bae continued, “That’s the lady from the ice cream shop! Peaches and Cream or whatever it was called!” (Aidan corrected him in a muttered “Paperbacks and Cream”) “The lady that you kept staring at!” 

Aidan quickly shushed him and glanced over to the -much too close- living room to make sure the woman hadn’t heard. She craned her neck over the back of the chair at the same moment and made eye contact with Aidan, who forced an awkward smile and held up a finger to mean  one minute,  before turning back to his son. 

“I was not staring  at her! and keep it down!” he whispered as they huddled over the kitchen sink. 

“I can only talk so quiet, dad” Baethan started. He glanced at the back of the chair in which the subject of their hushed discussion was sitting and smirked at his father. “You were definitely staring at her… And she was  totally  checking you out. You have to talk to her!” 

Aidan made a noise somewhere between an exasperated sigh and a groan. “Of course I’m going to talk to her, she’s just wandered out of the woods in the middle of a storm and is now dripping all over my antiques!” he said quickly and quietly, losing his breath toward the end. He risked a glance over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t listening, then sighed, “I’m going to talk to her, and it’s not going to mean  anything.  Got it? Because she’s a beautiful young woman, and I’m an old man with a cane. So drop it.”

Bae grinned. “See! You just said she’s beautiful!” He whispered  much  too loudly, which forced Aidan to throw a hand over his mouth and shush him again. “Sorry” he said quieter, after Aidan had removed his hand from his mouth. “Plus, you’re not that old… just- give it a try?”

Aidan groaned again and peeked over his shoulder at the woman -who was probably feeling quite awkward right about now- and said, “Fine! I’ll give it a try. But when I make an ass of myself I’m blaming you!” 

Bae’s grin widened and he trotted off to the living room. 

“Hey! So you own the ice cream shop in town, right?” 

Aidan groaned. 

\-----

Introductions were made (“I’m Baethan, but you can call me Bae, and that’s my dad, but you can call him Aidan”) and Bae, being the charming, outgoing young man that he was, struck up conversation with the woman, and had been carrying on talking to her for at least ten minutes while Aidan sat by quietly. 

Apparently they weren’t alone in remembering her from the ice cream shop - how could he not remember her,  Aidan thought \-  as she remembered them as well. 

“Two scoops of rocky road, right?” she asked with a smirk. “and you got...peaches and cream?” 

Bae seemed to be rather impressed by the fact that she remembered them by their orders, comparing her to some  “Ollivander”  character from Harry Potter. This very quickly thrust the two of them into an in-depth discussion about the series, which she was, apparently, a huge fan of. They were in the middle of a discussion about what “houses” they were in -Baethan seemed very proud of being in “Gryffindor” and Belle just an enthusiastic about being in    
“Hufflepuff”...whatever that meant- when Aidan remembered the tea kettle that had been long forgotten. 

“Does anyone want tea?” he asked shortly, rising from his seat. 

Belle immediately piped up that she would be “forever grateful for a good cup of tea”, but Bae wasn’t so quick to agree. 

“Y’know...I’m actually pretty tired. I think I’m gonna head to bed, you guys enjoy your tea though” 

Belle and Bae exchanged goodnights, and while Belle wasn’t looking, Aidan waved his arms at his son helplessly in a sort of  I-Have-No-Idea-What-To-Do  motion. Bae’s response to that was two finger guns and a wink, which was probably meant to be some form of encouragement. 

After putting the kettle on, Aidan reluctantly rejoined Belle in the living room. He noticed immediately that Belle was still shivering slightly, and realized that she was still wearing a very wet, probably very cold sundress. 

“Are you uh- do you want to change into something more...dry?” he asked, resisting the urge to stuff his hands in his pockets like a nervous teenager. 

“Oh God, that would be amazing- only if it’s no trouble, I mean” Belle replied quickly, fiddling with the frayed edge of one of the towels around her shoulders. 

“yeah, ‘course, I uh- right. I’ll just go get-” Aidan stuttered, waving his hand in front of him helplessly. 

After an agonizing moment of silence, he hurried away down the hall and knocked frantically on Baethan’s bedroom door. “Bae! Bae I’m coming in!” he whispered loudly as he pushed the door open. Bae stumbled back from the door as his father burst in. 

“Were you just listening to- you know what. Never mind. I need some of your clothes.” 

Bae scrunched up his face. “why do you need my clothes?”

“She- Belle- I told her I’d get her dry clothes and she’s very- er- she’s small- and I thought your clothes would probably fit her better.” Aidan rattled off, earning a look of either confusion or disgust from his son. 

“Dad, oh my god. No! What if you kiss her or something?! Then she’d be wearing my clothes! That’d be so weird, dad,  God.” 

Aidan scoffed, looking affronted. “I’m not going to  kiss her! ” 

“You don’t know that.” Bae wiggled his eyebrows and threw himself back on his bed. 

“Where is this coming from? Why are you so insistent that I-” 

Belle calling from the living room cut him off mid-sentence, “You know, I think I’m fine, if you can’t find anything” 

“No, no, it’s fine! I was just- it’s fine!” Aidan called back, shooting Bae a glare -which Bae responded to with a cheesy grin- before backing out of the room and moving down the hall to his own room. 

Digging through his duffel-bag, Aidan very quickly realized that he’d only packed one t-shirt, and the closest thing he’d packed to pajama pants, were boxers.  Wonderful.  Reluctantly, he grabbed the t-shirt and blindly grabbed for a pair of boxers, hurrying back to the living room. 

Back in the living room, he found Belle sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, her legs tucked underneath her and one of the towels from her shoulders draped over her legs. 

“I was cold” She said with a shy smile, answering the question he hadn’t even asked. 

“Oh. Well, I uh- all I could find was a t-shirt and some...uhm- some boxers…” he said nervously, immediately babbling that if he could definitely try to find something else if it made her uncomfortable and that they were clean but he understood if it was weird and-

She cut him off with a hand on his arm, “It’s fine, Aidan.” she removed her hand from his arm, allowing him to breathe properly once again. “They’re just like shorts, no big deal.” She said with a smile. 

Aidan couldn’t help but smile back. He held out the balled up shirt and boxers, and when she took them he was struck with horror. 

Belle looked at the boxers in her hand and stifled a laugh with the back of her other hand. Apparently he  really  liked hamburgers. 

Aidan was turning red and gaping in embarrassment for a good long while before his voice decided to work. “B-bae got those for me as a christmas present. Thought it’d be funny or something but that’s not- it’s not very funny-” he muttered with nervous laughter, wishing he could disappear.

Belle suppressed another giggle and looked up at him, her eyes shining with laughter, “I think it’s funny.” her cheeks turned pink suddenly, and she looked back down at the boxers, “I like hamburgers” she said with a wink, her cheeks turning bright red. 

Aidan opened his mouth to say something, but nothing would come out.  Is she trying to flirt with me? Do I flirt back?  Aidan thought, wishing he had a bit more experience with this sort of thing. 

The tea kettle saved the day by screaming that their water was boiling, and Aidan was happy to have a reason to run away as fast as possible. 

“I’ll just go change then…” Belle said, rising from the floor and motioning down the hall. 

After Aidan told her what room she could change in and she had gone, he had a moment to think.

There was an extremely beautiful woman changing into his boxers in his room  right now. 

That was quite enough thinking. 

He busied himself with the tea, hoping she liked earl grey, and trying to forget the fact that he owned a pair of boxers covered in hamburgers. 

“Hey” 

Aidan jumped, narrowly avoiding spilling tea all over himself. 

“Sorry! God, I just keep doing that.”  

Aidan chuckled, patting himself on the back for being able to keep at least a shred of dignity tonight. That is, until he turned around, and was face to face with Belle, who was now clad in nothing but his boxers and t-shirt. This time he actually  did  keep from making a fool of himself. He turned to retrieve their tea, effectively stopping himself from staring. 

It wasn’t that the outfit was revealing, or sexy in any way, not the sort of thing most men would stare at.  She was practically swimming in both the shirt and the boxers, but there was something about it; something...comforting. Her being there, at the cabin with him and Bae, wearing his clothes and waiting for tea...it was like that’s how it was always supposed to be. She just  fit. 

Aidan tried not to think too hard on that for the time being, and they carried their respective cups of tea back to the living room. Belle surprised him by sitting herself right back where she’d been sitting on the floor, and patting the carpet next to her, her eyes gleaming up at him expectantly. 

Well, who was he to deny her. 

With some difficulty thanks to his leg and almost spilling his tea all over the both of them, he sat himself next to her, his good leg bent and tucked under his outstretched bad leg. 

“By the way…” she started, trying to hide her grin by sipping her tea, “I’m really very flattered that you remembered me from the other day...and that you think I’m beautiful…” Her eyes flicked to him, waiting for a reaction. 

It seemed to take a moment for it to sink it, and then Aidan groaned and ran and hand down his face. “You… you could hear-”

“Everything. Sorry, I wasn’t  trying  to listen...really...you guys just aren’t very good whisperers.”

Aidan made a mental note to glare extra hard at his son in the morning. 

“Do you really remember everyone that comes into your shop? or did you just on the off chance that someone would make a Harry Potter reference?” Aidan asked with a teasing glint in his eye

Belle giggled met his eyes with a mischievous glint in her own. “ Well... I don’t remember  everyone , but I do make a point to remember handsome men with Scottish accents.” 

She smiled at the momentary confusion on his face. Confusion quickly turned to shock, and shock to amusement and embarrassment. Aidan didn’t  think he was  unattractive per-se, but he certainly wouldn’t expect a gorgeous woman such as Belle to find him attractive in the slightest. This was  definitely  flirting, but he wasn’t quite sure where it was supposed to go from here. 

Belle watched a blush creep up his cheeks and she drew her bottom lip into her mouth, trying and failing to control her smile and her own reddening cheeks.

“Other than that...uh- yeah that was for the possible Harry Potter reference… And I wasn’t disappointed!” 

As they drank and refilled their tea, they fell easily into conversation about anything and everything. Their work, where they went to school, where they grew up -they found common ground in that they had both moved to America as children- and, eventually, their past love lives. 

He told her all about his divorcing Milah, and the custody battle that followed. He even told her about the events of the previous day and Baethan’s breakthrough with his mother, which Belle congratulated him on, commenting that Baethan really seemed to enjoy being with Aidan, something that was rather uncommon for a boy his age. 

When she started to speak of her past love life, and the violence it involved, Aidan felt his skin grow hot, not with embarrassment, but with anger. How could anyone,  anyone, be lucky enough to have the privilege of being with Belle, and be so ungrateful, so  despicable? 

She didn’t seem to harbor any anger toward this  “Gregg”  though. In fact, she seemed to wish him the best in life, saying she hoped he found happiness someday. This was very different than what Aidan wished upon that man for hurting such an incredible woman. 

“Life is weird… you know, the way everything connects. Like, if I didn’t own an ice cream shop, I wouldn’t have gone out blackberry picking, and I wouldn’t have ended up here with you… and that’d be a shame.” 

Aidan smiled into his tea cup. He still couldn’t understand why someone like Belle  wanted  to be around someone like him, but he wasn’t going to fight it. 

“Do you believe in soulmates?” she asked suddenly, trying to sound as offhand as possible. 

He thought about this for a moment, then looked at her and answered, “I don’t know...I think I’d need proof”

She seemed to accept this answer, because she nodded and turned her gaze back toward the fire. 

Neither of them said anything for a while after that, they just sat together in front of the fire, him wondering what made her ask if he believed in soulmates, and her wondering the exact same thing and wishing she knew the answer. Neither of them could deny that there was  something  between them, something obvious and palpable and real. Something neither of them had felt before; something neither of them could name. 

Slowly, comfortably, they fell into quiet, easy conversation. He couldn’t remember who yawned first, but soon enough they were both yawning and bleary eyed. 

“I think it’s time we turned in for the- for the night” Aidan suggested, mid yawn. “You can take my bed if you like, I don’t mind sleeping on the couch- it’s rather comfortable, actually.” 

Belle yawned too, triggered by Aidan’s. “No, you keep your bed. That window seat looks pretty inviting right now.” She smiled a bleary smile and struggled to her feet, stumbling a bit in her sleepiness. She extended a hand to Aidan, and he took it gratefully, pulling himself off the ground with her help. 

“Well...Goodnight, Belle.” He smiled sleepily and started down the hall. But he didn’t make it far before he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. 

“Aidan, wait…” Belle was right behind him, looking sleepy and a bit flushed. “Er- thank you. For everything.” she gave him a shy smile, and before she knew what she was doing, she’d rocked up onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. 

It happened so quickly that Aidan almost thought he’d dreamt it, but when she pulled away the sudden loss of warmth where her lips had been told him that it was indeed  very  real. He cleared his throat quietly and smiled down at her, trying to stop the blush creeping up his cheeks. “Right. Bed.” 

He barely made it two steps down the hall before he stopped again, turning back toward her. 

“Oh, and Belle, if the storm has calmed down enough by morning, I can drive you back to your car...and if it hasn’t, uh- you can stay here as long as you like. I think Bae would quite enjoy it if you stayed, actually.” he said with a half smile, “and uh- I would too...like it- if you stayed, I mean. I don’t expect you too, of course, but if you want to...” he trailed off, too enamored by her growing smile to form coherent sentences. 

“I could always have Ariel open the shop for me…” Belle mused, grinning

Aidan returned the smile. “Goodnight, Belle.” It was strange how natural it felt, saying that. 

“Goodnight, Aidan.”

He had been tired, but once his head hit his pillow, his mind wanted to do anything but sleep; so he lay awake, thinking… about Belle, mostly. His fingers drifted to where her lips had met his cheek. Mere hours ago they were perfect strangers, and now he was saying goodnight to her like he’d been saying it all his life. He had a thought then, a thought that both excited him, and utterly terrified him. 

He wouldn’t mind saying goodnight to Belle all his life.


	4. Epilogue

Two years later…

It had become somewhat of a tradition, coming to that particular spot at the lake during summer. The water was perfectly clear crystal blue, and the beach was covered in pebbles small enough to sit on comfortably. At the right time of year, there were also endless amounts of blackberries to be picked. It was their favorite spot. 

Today, Bae was out fishing with his step-dad, Killian, so Aidan had decided to take Belle on a picnic, just the two of them. 

They had intended on actually getting  in  the water, but once the food had been eaten and the wine drank, they were quite content to lay on their blanket and enjoy the peaceful summer day. There was no where Aidan would rather be than relaxing in the sun with Belle tucked beside him. 

“Hey, remember that night when I got lost in middle of that crazy storm, and I found the cabin?” Belle asked suddenly, twisting to look up at him. 

Aidan chuckled and pressed a kiss to her hairline. “Sweetheart, I’m not sure how I would ever forget that. You did ruin my favorite leather chair, after all.”

She smacked his leg playfully and narrowed her eyes at him, resting her chin on his chest. “ Anyway.  Do you remember that I asked you if you believed in soulmates?” 

“Yes...I remember that.” he answered, looking at her questioningly. “why?” 

Belle turned back to her original position and relaxed herself against his chest. “I was just wondering… do you? believe in soulmates, I mean.” 

“hmm…” Aidan mulled this question over for a moment, absentmindedly tracing circles on her bare arm with the tip of his finger. “Yes.” he said simply after a while. 

Belle smiled and lifted her head to look at him, “what changed your mind?”

Aidan lifted his hand to her temple and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. He leaned up slowly, and she met him halfway. Their lips met in the softest, briefest of kisses, and Aidan pulled back. He rested his forehead against hers and smiled before whispering, “I found proof” 

The smile that she gave him and the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes gave him all the courage he needed, and suddenly the ring in his pocket didn’t feel as heavy as it did before.    
  


fin. 


End file.
